All posts tagged hummer

A juicy defense contract awarded on Thursday reminded us of a much juicier one on the horizon, for one of the most high-profile assets in the U.S. armed forces. Via the WSJ’s Doug Cameron:

General Dynamics Corp. on Thursday won a contract to supply ground vehicles for U.S. Special Forces, beating two rival bids as defense contractors face the prospect of some Pentagon programs being culled by budget cuts.

The seven-year deal announced by the Defense Department is worth up to $562 million to build the specially equipped vehicles for the Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, which oversees the elite forces in all four branches of the U.S. military.

General Dynamics beat out competition from truck and engine specialist Navistar International Corp. and privately held AM General LLC—maker of the Humvee—which had been shortlisted from the original six bidders.

The ground-transport market has become one of the most fiercely contested among defense contractors, who are also eyeing a potential $4 billion contract to start replacing the U.S. military’s 130,000 Humvees.

With federal budget cuts kicking in, every contract win is particularly sweet for the Washington’s defense companies. And when it happens to be a bellwether deal in the race for a much larger future contract, it’s even more sweet.